Devices for manufacturing three-dimensional objects by layerwise solidification of a powdery building material, for example in the shape of a laser sintering machine, are comprised for example of a building area having a size of 250×250 mm like the EOSINT M270. Due to the large building space, such devices may be too large and inflexible for manufacturing small objects such as teeth inlays. Due to the large area of the building platform, it is required to apply a large amount of a powdery material, wherein only a small part thereof is processed into an object. Thereafter, the non-solidified material is recycled in a common manner. Thereby, the economic efficiency of the machine is reduced when manufacturing smaller objects.
Development of devices that are specifically suitable for manufacturing objects having small dimensions is usually not profitable due to the development work and manufacturing costs and the restricted usability of the devices.
Patent specification DE 199 52 998 B4 discloses a device for direct manufacture of bodies with a laminated structure from powdery substances having two building spaces and two associated storage containers. The bottoms of the building spaces and the storage containers are each connected to their own respective drives, thereby making the device complex and inflexible.
It is an object of the present invention to provide means for a device for manufacturing of objects by layerwise solidification of a powdery building material and such a device, so that a device having a large building space may be configured in a way that economic manufacture of objects having different dimensions is possible by layerwise solidification of the powdery building material.
This object and further developments of the invention are taught by the claims.
One aspect of the invention is a means for modifying a building space which enables downsizing or partitioning of the building space into one or multiple separate small building areas, in which objects having less powder input may be manufactured, or different kinds of powder may be processed in parallel. The means for modifying the building space has a simple construction and is therefore cost-effective, and may be easily retrofitted or removed.